How difficult can it be to hire a suit?

[almostwitty]

So, the time has come to try and hire a posh suit. I can’t be the only male who has to hire a posh suit and yet hates the entire experience of shopping for clothes – so you’d have thought the male tailors would have tried to make it as easy as possible. But oh no.

Thus to Suits You Westfield. Which is a total nightmare of a shop.

• The first time I popped in, the sales guy kept trying to get me to hire a package for the exorbitant cost of £100. And then when I refused to do so, he put the order on hold so that I could “think about it and come back tomorrow”. He said he wouldn’t be there but he assured me that someone else would be.
• I popped in the next day. A very disgruntled and pissed-off salesperson eventually deigned to try and recreate my order, but gave up with their insanely slow systems after 20 minutes, and asked me to “come back tomorrow”.
• The next day, neither of the salespeople I had dealt with were there, and instead there was one guy there – a right geezer of a salesman – who literally said “We can’t help you”. I asked why, and he said the store was closing down in two weeks. Strange I don’t see any sign of a Closing Down sale…

Thus, I went into another department store – and they had the opposite problem in being understaffed – thus, every time I try to pop in, the staff are rushed off their feet dealing with other customers. I’ve tried to pop in at three lunchtimes and not had much success – the one time I actually did manage to get measured, I had to wear something that was 4 sizes too small – just to see how it would look – and then realised they didn’t have the lilac waistcoat I wanted.

Online was no help – despite the smartgrooms.co.uk website claiming they could supply a suit by the desired date, when I called them it turned out they couldn’t. And I’m still waiting to hear from another website.

That’s not even getting into the outrageous cost of hiring a suit – and everyone seems to charge the same prices. If that isn’t something that deserves a complaint to the Monopoly Commission, I don’t know what does.

Mirrored from almost witty.

Comments

[flyslip.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the whole exercise sucks. NOW YOU KNOW HOW WE CHICKS FEEL. :p

[almostwitty]

But you "chicks" (as a general rule) persevere with buying clothes. Whereas as evidenced above, us men just give up and walk straight back out.

[flyslip.livejournal.com]

Doesn't mean we don't find the whole experience painful, expensive and... uh, did I mention painful?

[almostwitty]

If it's painful and expensive, don't do it. Unless you want to, of course!

[flyslip.livejournal.com]

If I didn't do it, then thanks to a scumbag ex-husband and having to move across the world twice in as many years, I WOULDN'T HAVE ANY CLOTHES.

[almostwitty]

To quote Doctor Who, "victory should be naked!"

[flyslip.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but to quote the local constabulary, "That's against the law, ma'am."

[trialia]

The problem may be that you're trying to do it in London, notorious for its ridiculous prices...

[almostwitty]

Alas, the prices are pretty much the same nationwide. £60-£100.

[trialia]

Hey, £60 is more than a third less than £100, so that's not as bad. That's actually reasonable.

[almostwitty]

Not to me. But then I am fast approaching "Grumpy Old man" status in life. You should have seen me complaining about the price of peppers earlier.

[trishpiglet.livejournal.com]

Did anybody else misread this, at first whizzy glance through their friends list, as "How difficult can it be to hire a slut?"

Nope
Just me then

Would you like/accept a contribution towards suit hire as a wedding present? Give me a shout if so. Contact details here

[almostwitty]

You. Too much kinkyness. (if there is such a thing)

Thanks so much for the offer - but it's the principle of the thing (and the frustratedness of trying to get something) as much as anything else. Plus I'm not altogether keen on dressing up generally!

[almostwitty]

You weren't the only one!

[far-gone.livejournal.com]

http://www.mossbros.co.uk/

[antiope.livejournal.com]

Generally, I love shopping. However, if I'm looking for something specific, I very rarely find anything I like. Very frustrating.
Good luck, though. ;)

[kiri-l.livejournal.com]

What about one of your recently wed mates - surely one of them knows how / where to get a decent suit with little hassle. polling them altogether should make something tussle out of the mud.

Is there something like yelp or tribe for London? maybe that would be of help. I find it odd that your having this much trouble getting a suit for your wedding.

In the meantime I'm going to tap some of my London friends (whom you don't know) and see what they have to say - there have been a flurry of weddings recently.

[almostwitty]

It's ok - I've given up on the idea :)

[kiri-l.livejournal.com]

your going nekkid?! ooer

[theanatomist.livejournal.com]

There's a couple of independent suit hire and wedding places in kingsbury - not too far from Westfield if you've got the time/ a car. They are aimed at the Indian/ Pakistani Market but a suits a suit right?

[southernmyst.livejournal.com]

Yeesh, I guess my beau got really lucky with his. We poked around the intertubes, I sent him (I was still ill at the time) to a shop to check their prices for buying a suit, with the fallback plan of renting one from a site we'd found if that failed. He came back, bought suit (jacket and slacks) and shirt in hand, rented vest arranged for pickup the Wednesday before our wedding, in silver as we'd wanted, and bought tie in hand. All that was less than twice the cost of renting a suit twice, and he'll need it again for our Louisiana do, so we're good now.

As for the same prices thing - I went by one of the local shops that does bridal dresses, formal dresses, and suit hire, and picked up their suit hire booklet, and we went through it and chose what we wanted to find out how much the cost was. After my interaction the next day with the shop owner, I swore off ever doing business with them ever ever. Funny thing, though - as we kept looking around at other suit hire options, the same brand name (Etiquette) and the same exact models in the same poses and suits kept cropping up again and again, in printed material and online. We suspect they all get their suit hire through one large supplier, hence the similar prices.

It's insane to me that you're having trouble finding a suit, though. Yeesh. Good luck.